Pico Rivera residents speak out on fatal deputy-involved shooting

Residents Jennifer Smetana, center, and Ruth Vitela hold signs as the Pico Rivera City Council holds a special meeting on Friday about the events that took place that led to the shooting of resident Frank Mendoza at his home on August 1. Smetana brought up an incident involving her son, citing a pattern of police brutality. (Keith Durflinger - Staff Photographer)

Pico Rivera City Council holds a special meeting on Friday about the shooting of resident Frank Mendoza at his home on August 1. Residents spoke to the council at the beginning of the meeting. (Keith Durflinger - Staff Photographer)

PICO RIVERA >> The public, for the first time Friday, comfronted the City Council on Friday on how a sheriff’s deputy could have shot and killed Frank Mendoza, who was trying to escape from his home after an armed parolee broke in.

At least one resident asked city officials to terminate the contract between Pico Rivera and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“The sheriff’s in this city have been out of control for a long time,” claimed Richard Ramirez, 63, and said the killing of fellow resident Mendoza, 54, was another example of the sheriff’s department overreaching its authority.

Ramirez spoke out against the department at a special council meeting where city officials listened to a detailed description of what happened from Assistant Sheriff Mike Rothans. He spoke of the events that lead to the accidental shooting of Mendoza in the head and leg on Aug. 1, the hostage-taking of Mendoza’s wife, Lorraine Munoz, 60, and the eventual killing of wanted parolee, Cedric Ramirez, 24, on Aug. 2.

Richard Ramirez was one of three speakers from the sparsely attended early-morning meeting.

“Why did you hold this meeting when a lot of people are at work?” Ramirez asked.

He called the discussion too important for it not have been set at a time more convenient for the public.

Rothans, who once served as captain of the Pico Rivera station, expressed the department’s sorrow and remorse for the accidental shooting.

“The outcome was the heartbreaking death of an innocent man,” he said, echoing interim Sheriff John Scott’s words during a news conference the day before.

“(Cedric Ramirez) brazenly broke into a home of an innocent family, ultimately taking a hostage,” said Rothans, in another instance where he repeated a point made by the sheriff. “He demonstrated a complete disregard for the safety of the Mendoza family, terrorizing them in a way that no one should.”

When he first was spotted in Mendoza’s backyard, Cedric Ramirez shot at the officers, with at least one of them returning fire and possibly wounding the suspect, according to Rothans.

As deputies went to the front of the house, some family members — Mendoza’s son and two grandchildren — escaped through the front door. Cedric Ramirez again fired at deputies from a position in an interior hallway.

The deputies retreated into the front yard from the gunfire before Mendoza stepped through the front doorway, where he was shot by a deputy, believing he was Ramirez, and that his colleagues were in imminent danger, according to sheriff’s officials.

“The investigation is ongoing and will be for several months ahead,” Rothans explained.

“When it comes down to it the tragedy of last week, there’s nothing that can be done to prevent it,” Councilman Gregory Salcido. “Bad people do bad things.”

After a closed session meeting of the City Council, city attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman made a statement regarding what officials plan on doing about the matter.

“The City Council recognizes that addressing crime and the violent conduct of those few individuals who engage in criminal conduct, is of the utmost concern, not just today, but for each and every day.,” Alvarez-Glasman said.

He called the job of keeping the city safe a collaborative one between city officials and law enforcement agencies.

“There are legal options for the city and sheriff’s department that need further exploration,” Alvarez-Glasman added, but declined to elaborate.

City staff was directed by the City Council to schedule a meeting for next week to discuss those legal options.